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Hello all, A fellow called me last night, seems he just bought an old farm house, and is remodeling it. He tore off the deck, and guess what he found, that's right a colony of bee's. I haven't seen them yet, but he said there are about six huge combs full of bees.

I am going to try to get them tomorrow as he said that due to the construction he has no choice but to kill them if I can't save them.

I plan on taking the combs and tying them into some frames and putting them into a nuc box. I am thinking I won't be able to feed syrup due to the cold high 35 tomorrow, so I plan on feed them a honey/sugar patty and hope for the best. At least they will have a chance. otherwise there going to be destroyed.

Breaking the bees up in the cold weather will break their cluster and be very stressful on them. What about building a box to place comb as it is and bees into until it gets a little warmer and then convert them to a better hive?

If you have to take them out, then plan on cutting all the honey up and tying it into frames too. It will take more string and it will be very messy, but the bees will need all the stores they can get. It may go better if you do it all in mediums because the honey combs won't be so large and unmanagable then.

It will be an interesting experiment, but I wouldn't count on them making it.

I assume that since the decking was removed and the comb was found, that the comb is attached to the joists and sits between (2) of them.
If this is the case, and the joists are also being replaced, use the material at hand and build a "box" for them. Taking the whole colony as one section of the joists and decking.

Can you use some type of heater while you are working to remove them to heat the area up some? I agree with MountainCamp I think i would try to remove the whole colony without much interuption. Take photos if you can

[This message has been edited by beekeeper28 (edited January 08, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by beekeeper28 (edited January 08, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by beekeeper28 (edited January 08, 2004).]

i had a similar situation,i set up a hive with a deep full of drawn comb,you can even pour some syrup into some of the frames.i then put my mess of bees,comb,etc into an empty deep(no frames) that i has sat on top of the first deep,the bees moved down and resettled,then i removed the feral comb.

Well I got them out. It was a porch, and the bee's were up in the roof above it. It was a huge hive probably three feet long between two joists. Some of the comb was torn down, but there was something like fifteen combs hanging there. It was black as coal. I could see the bee's clustered in the middle maybe two pounds. I started taking out the outside combs so I could get to the center where the bees were. The combs were perfect size for cutting and fitting into deep frames. I used rubber bands to hold them in place. Got enough to fill a five frame nuc box. I finally found the queen at the very end. She had crawled back behind a piece of wood that they had put between the joist to seal off an access to the eve. When I took the piece out the bee's had made comb behind it. I started to take out the combs from behind that and there she was. Put her into the nuc and closed it up.

They may not make it, but they at least have a chance now. I will have to feed them later, because although I got some comb with honey, I know I don't have enough to make it through the winter.

What about closing them up with screen so no one can get out and putting them in your basement for a while. I would give them a chance to get their new home in order. I would even think you could feed them some heavy syrup. After a couple of weeks they could go outside. I don't know if this would work but it's what I thought as I followed this thread.

&gt;&gt;&gt;huge hive probably three feet long between two joists. Some of the comb was torn down, but there was something like fifteen combs hanging there. It was black as coal. I could see the bee's clustered in the middle maybe two pounds.

Wow, what a hive. I wonder how long it was there. **** shame to have to remove it. Hope they do well.
When you say, cold, what temp do you mean.

The bee's I'm afraid aren't doing well. I have them in a nuc, and it's been cold here in VA for the last month. I believe they have Nosema, too much stress. On the occational days that it warms up some they have taken cleansing flights, and I noticed stains on the front of the nuc. I opened the top yesterday, it was 44 degrees out, and there were stains on the top bars. There is a post recently by Micheal on Nosema that shows a picture that could have been taken of this nuc.